By Our Reporter
SHILLONG: The National Food Security Ordinance, 2013 is expected to cover 21.47 lakh population of the State.
“With the State currently having a total population of over 30 lakh, it would mean that nearly 70 per cent of the total population would be covered under this new ambitious programme of the Centre,” a senior government official said here on Friday.
He also informed the Centre has revised the percentage on the number of beneficiaries in the State.
“As per the latest estimation given by the Centre, the programme would now cover 77.9 per cent of the total population in the rural areas and 50.87 percent of the total population in the urban areas,” the official said.
Official sources said the initial estimation of the beneficiaries to be covered is 76.7 per cent in rural areas and 63 per cent in urban areas.
Official sources, however, informed that all the BPL families would be covered under this programmes and also the people who are covered under special categories like PDS and AAY.
“The students residing in the Scheduled Tribes and Scheduled Caste hostels would also come under this programme,” the official said.
Meanwhile, he informed that the government is coming up with a mechanism to identify the people who would be covered under this programme.
“The officials have been asked to prepare different slabs to identify the beneficiaries. The annual income of the family would be one of criteria to identify the beneficiaries. We have other criteria also to identify the beneficiaries,” senior government official said.
According to the official, the Government is also taking steps with the help of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to increase storage of food grains across the State. “We are coming up with new store houses in Nongstoin, Jowai, Nongpoh and district headquarters,” official sources said.
Moreover, official sources admitted that the State at present does not have the necessary infrastructures to be able to have a capacity to store food grains for three months as prescribed in the programme.
“At present, we have a storage capacity to have the stock of food grains for one month only. But this norm to have a stock for three months is not a new thing. The basic objective in having such a huge stock is to meet the demands during emergency situation,” the official said.
When ask how the Government is going to implement this programme, he said the existing mechanisms which are there in the implementation of the Targeted Public Distribution System (TDPS) would continue.
The senior government official said that the wholesalers would still be involved in this programme even as the distribution of the food grains would continue from the Fair Price Shop.
While admitting that it is a huge task for the Government to implement this massive programme, he said that everything would fall in line once this programme takes off.
“I know there are loopholes in the PDS. But the Government is taking all possible steps to see that this ambitious programme is successfully implemented. We cannot have a negative mindset,” the government official added.